Adventure Post: Oktoberfest

When we first started out, Jo realised that we would be missing Oktoberfest by just a few days. We, for some reason, thought it was in October. Then in Valencia, we learned that it is actually mostly in September, and we could, in fact, make Oktoberfest in Munich! We decided to make Munich our last stop in the Schengen Area, figured out our flight out of mainland Europe, and booked the cheapest hostel we could find. We decided to only stay for a couple of days. We figured that would be enough to get the experience.

And we were right.

We rolled into Munich pretty late. It was a six hour train ride from Budapest, plus a combination of trains and buses to get to the hostel. "Hostel" being a loose term. We were staying in a temporary, pop-up hostel in Campingplatz. Literally a pop-up hostel. We stayed in tents at the Hangover Hospital. Luckily, they were big enough to fit several bunks in, so we didn't sleep on the ground. Some of the "hostels" were really just pup tents for rent.

One thing we were not ready for, despite psyching ourselves up for it, was the cold at night in Munich. We both knew it would be chilly, but after all the time we spent in warm areas, it was still a shock to the system. For three Euros, we could turn the hot water on in the shower for eight minutes, and you better believe we took advantage of that option.

We slept in the first day before making our way to the main attraction. Again, it was a bus and two trains to get there, but, hey, c'est la vie. We looked at the traditional clothing along the way. Super cool, but WAY outside of our price range for only being there for two days. We elected to just go in our travel clothes. Turns out we weren't the only ones to have that thought. We definitely weren't out of place.

Oktoberfest itself was located in a wide fairground in Munich. There are a bunch of "tents," which are actually hard-stand buildings, each with its own atmosphere. Outside of the tents was a traveling carnival which very much resembled the county fairs we have back in Texas.

We weren't particularly blown away.

We had heard of drunken shenanigans at Oktoberfest, and we'd seen the pictures of the massive beers, but we didn't expect the drinking to be the main event. Coming off San Fermin, we figured there would be more to Oktoberfest than going to a tent, grabbing a table, and drinking 15 Euro beers. Turns out we were mistaken. If, and we do mean IF, you can get a seat at a table, then congratulations, you have peaked at Oktoberfest. Enjoy your beers. We were astounded to learn you couldn't drink outside of the tents. No wandering the grounds like a drunken band of merry misfits with your best friends that you just met today.

Well, we couldn't get a seat our first day, so we made our way into the Munich city center to peruse some old sites, do some shopping for cold weather gear, and have some much-needed food. We ended up having dinner at a pub watching an apparently-important football match for Bavaria. Bavaria mopped the floor with the other team with ease (Jo looked it up later and found that Bavaria was a 90% or greater favourite to win).

Our second day, we got to the tents a little after ten in the morning to ensure we got a seat. That was a little overkill, because not many people were there. We grabbed a seat outside (the tent wouldn't let us in with our water bottles for some reason), and had some drinks. Yep, block checked. We then set out to find the wine tent. It took us forever to find it. Where was it? Literally right across from where we started. Oops! We grabbed a seat upstairs there, had a couple of more beers, and then...well, we were pretty much done. We sat and read our Kindles a bit, but ultimately we had had the Oktoberfest experience.

That night, we decided to pay the four Euros for wifi and watched a corrida on Onetoro.tv. A Basque traveler saw us watching it, and he was ecstatic to see Americans partaking in his culture. We also noticed a staff member keeping tabs on it out of the corner of his eye. We invited them both to watch with us, but no dice. Oh, well.

Probably our favourite part of Oktoberfest was this one ride where you paid six Euros to go up a conveyor belt to take a slide back down. Super simple concept, but many people decided they wanted to take the conveyor belt on their own rather than use the staff's help. Watching them not know how to respond when they fell was hilarious, and there was a sizable crowd gathered to just watch the hilarity ensue. (Check out the photo album for some videos!).

Our flight out wasn't actually in Munich; it was in Frankfurt. It was way cheaper to fly to Dublin from there, so we hopped a train to Frankfurt, which was an adventure in itself. The service provider changed trains after we made our reservations, but then made some people's reservations with the new train, so no one actually had assigned seats, as the car numbers didn't always line up. This caused more than a little bit of tension on the train between passengers. Luckily, we were sitting next to a German man who would explain things to people who got on the train after us when they would try to boot us from our seats.

Our flight out of Frankfurt, Germany, and the Schengen Area was at 20h40 on day 90 in the Schengen Area. Probably not the smartest thing seeing as planes can get canceled pretty easily in Europe. Luckily, ours went off without a hitch, and by 23h we were basking in the cool air of the Emerald Isle.

Where We Stayed: Hangover Hospital

Google Photo Album